Fig. 1

Immunomodulation of preconditioned MSCs on murine macrophages. a Preconditioning and coculture model. Murine MSCs were preconditioned with IFN-γ plus TNF-α (I + T, 20 ng/ml each), LPS (20 μg/ml) plus TNF-α (L + T), LPS alone (L), or TNF-α alone (T) for 3 days, and cocultured with M1 macrophages for 24 hours. b M2 (Arg1 and CD206) and M1 (TNF-α/IL-1Ra) macrophage marker expression in macrophages measured by quantitative PCR. Data presented as fold-change compared to macrophages cocultured with unstimulated control MSCs. c, d Expression of M2 macrophage markers (Arg1 and CD206) at protein level examined by flow cytometry. ***p < 0.005. Arg1 Arginase 1, IFN interferon, IL1Ra interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, MSC mesenchymal stem cell, TNF tumor necrosis factor